EVENTS

Welcome to our tent

Jim Underdown puts in a good word for this funny new-fangled plan of having a conference that puts secularism and women together, and for the general idea of reaching out to particular groups by, you know, reaching out to them.

I look forward to being at the Women in Secularism conference next week. The line-up is chock-full of smart, interesting speakers, many of the attendees are friends and colleagues, and D.C. is a great place to spend a weekend.

Not everyone feels that way. Some of the people who are not going are not just passing on the conference, they’re also criticizing that it’s happening at all. It’s not needed; it’s a waste of resources; it dilutes our mission, they say.

That’s a polite version of what they say. The versions I see feature a lot of phrases like “professional victims” and “sisterhood of the oppressed” along with claims that we all (all we crazy feminazis) say all men are rapists, call nearly all women “sister punishers,” and steal all the money.

Underdown points out that religion has been shitty to women and there is every reason to encourage women to fight back.

ANY large group who feels like they have a particular beef with religion (or pseudoscience, or other wacky beliefs) has a legitimate interest in addressing that problem as a group.

At CFI-L.A., we’ve hosted Black Skeptics, Spanish-speaking atheists, gay and lesbian humanists, and others who’ve had specific troubles in our society based on who they fundamentally are. And I say, welcome to our tent.

And why not? Eh? Never heard of outreach? There are a lot of ways to do outreach. I say let’s have more outreach, not less.

I’m working now in the underground bunker on the top secret Santa Claus uplink that will activate all the chips implanted from birth into the heads of MRA’s so that they get a never ending broadcast of a kindly Santa Claus grey beard PZ father figure constantly chastising them for their evil and bad thoughts, and encouraging them to accept the One True Cthulu as their PZ lord and savior, and join his diabolical cult to reenter the matrix! Muahahahaahahahhahahaha!! /evil feminazi wytch cackle. /me licks her ice cream slowly and casually, as a fawning MRA on a leash, with a chip implanted in his head, is made to cruelly lick her striped socks while saying “Yes Mistress, all hail the Mighty Illuminati Reptile Shapeshifting Overlords, PZ and Ophelia!! May all our thoughts be controlled by them, and may a statue of PZ be on every corner of the land!”

Where does this one come from? Have the true skeptics been implying that you uppity women aren’t entitled to spend your money as you wish, and that the money is by rights theirs, to be spent on asserting their intellectual superiority over astrologers and ghost hunters.

@hyperdeath No, we’re implying that women are just one group religion oppresses and the money is better spent fighting religion in general than for special treatment for just one of religion’s many victims. And we’re espousing the radical notion that men are equal to women.

Oh, but see the first comment: Some of people involved in WIS2 have been “rude, hateful and nasty” to other women in the movement! [And, um, there might not be just a little of that coming the other way, too?] And we can’t solve the [unspecified] problems until you all put down your egos! SO I’M NOT GOING!!!!!

notafaminist, how exactly are you going to spend that money against religion directly without spending it to benefit any one group?

Eamon, interestingly, I don’t remember that commenter at last year’s WiS. I do, however, recall her being at another conference with many of the same female speakers. I wonder whether we could figure out who she’s objecting to by matching up the lists. Or maybe she doesn’t actually go to any secularism conferences?

No, we’re implying that women are just one group religion oppresses and the money is better spent fighting religion in general than for special treatment for just one of religion’s many victims. And we’re espousing the radical notion that men are equal to women.

That is interesting, it’s almost as if people have some kind of strange notion that women are generally more abused than men by most if not all religions, hmmm I wonder where people could get such a strange Idea.